As 2020 comes to an end (which — don’t even remind me. It feels like yesterday was March, and now we’re almost at the end of November), I decided to go through my Goodreads, and finally reorganize all my shelves, including my upcoming releases shelves, and my most anticipated ones. Without further ado, here are some of my most anticipated 2021 releases!
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Read moreMargot Lee’s mother, Mina, isn’t returning her calls. It’s a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother’s life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother. Interwoven with Margot’s present-day search is Mina’s story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she’s barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death. Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, The Last Story of Mina Lee is a powerful and exquisitely woven debut novel that explores identity, family, secrets, and what it truly means to belong.
Summary from Goodreads
Special thank you to SkyeBookTours for organizing this blog tour and providing me an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review. All quotes are from an advance copy and are subject to change in final publication.
A world of enchanted injustice needs a disenchanting woman in the newest fantasy series by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician.
Read moreThe orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.
Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spellbooks their bodies leave behind.
For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?
Summary from Goodreads
Thank you to NetGalley and StoriesUntold for this eARC!
Read moreIn Croswald, the only thing more powerful than dark magic is one secret…
For sixteen years Ivy Lovely has been hidden behind an enchanted boundary that separates the mundane from the magical. When Ivy crosses the border, her powers awaken. Curiosity leads her crashing through a series of adventures at the Halls of Ivy, a school where students learn to master their magical blood and the power of Croswald’s mysterious gems. When Ivy’s magic—and her life—is threatened by the Dark Queen, she scrambles to unearth her history and save Croswald before the truth is swept away forever.*
*Summary from Goodreads!
Read morePart Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, part Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Adam Silvera’s extraordinary debut confronts race, class, and sexuality during one charged near-future summer in the Bronx.
Sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto is struggling to find happiness after a family tragedy leaves him reeling. He’s slowly remembering what happiness might feel like this summer with the support of his girlfriend Genevieve, but it’s his new best friend, Thomas, who really gets Aaron to open up about his past and confront his future.
As Thomas and Aaron get closer, Aaron discovers things about himself that threaten to shatter his newfound contentment. A revolutionary memory-alteration procedure, courtesy of the Leteo Institute, might be the way to straighten himself out. But what if it means forgetting who he truly is?
Summary taken from Goodreads
Hi, hello! It’s Mary here with my contribution to All Hallow’s Read! My pick for this showcase is The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco, a delightfully spooky and interesting read!
You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night.
A dead girl walks the streets.
She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.
And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.
Because the boy has a terrifying secret – one that would just kill to get out.
The Girl from the Well is A YA Horror novel pitched as “Dexter” meets “The Grudge”, based on a well-loved Japanese ghost story.*
*Summary taken from Goodreads!
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When Ava arrives at a writing retreat in Italy, she’s told that she can’t reveal any personal information, including her name. After all, the purpose of the writing retreat is to shut off all communication with the outside world, and for the participants to focus on their stories. It’s just a harmless idea, until Ava, as “Aria”, meets “Dutch”, a participant from a cancelled neighboring martial arts retreat. Sparks fly, and the two of them embark on a whirlwind “baggage-free” romance of their own. No personal details can be shared: from their real names, their ages, their jobs, or even their dating history. Everything is perfect, until Aria and Dutch must return to their regular lives, as Ava and Matt.
From the moment they arrive back in London, Ava and Matt are faced with a harsh reality: their picture perfect romance isn’t all it’s chalked up to be. It seems like they can’t get along in any shape, way, or form. Whether it’s a simple opinion on food, or artwork, or apartments, or dogs, or room temperature – the list simply never ends. Can Ava and Matt learn to compromise and to love each other’s lives, or will they go their separate ways?
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*PLEASE NOTE: This review does not adequately discuss the lack of representation and diversity within this novel, and for that I apologise. For a review that does acknowledge the lack of diversity and representation, I recommend THIS one, written by Aentee over at readatmidnight. Because I’m white, my review does not properly highlight the damaging amount of exclusion of BIPOC in this book. I acknowledge that I have a lot of privilege to be in a position where I do not think twice about being represented in media, so I deeply apologise for overlooking it. I will absolutely learn from this mistake, and do better to continue educating myself and continue to critically analyse mass media.
Read moreA Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name*
* Review from Goodreads
Hi, hello! It’s Cossette here, with another round of All Hallow’s Reads, with Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Cemetery Boys takes place in the days leading up to Dia de los Muertos, and follows Yadriel, a trans teen boy, desperate to prove himself as a brujo to himself, and to his family. When his cousin Miguel is murdered a couple days before Dia de los Muertos, Yadriel, and his best friend Maritza, set off to find his body, and his portaje, in the hopes of releasing Miguel’s spirit. However, Yadriel accidentally releases the spirit of Julian Diaz, one of the resident bad boys of his school. Julian refuses to go quietly, not until they find out what happened to him, and until he receives confirmation that his loved ones are alright. Together, with the help of Maritza, and a surprise appearance of “The Boys”, they set off to find out what happened to Julian. But the more time Julian and Yadriel spend together, the more Yadriel finds himself wanting Julian to stay. Will they be able to release Julian before it’s too late? And will they figure out what happened to Miguel?
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